Blair in Nigeria to urge fight against malaria

Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Saturday called for concerted efforts to combat malaria in Nigeria which accounts for a quarter of the one million malaria deaths annually in Africa.

"Malaria has no barrier and does not discriminate. When we think of malaria we think particularly of children and women, and how to prevent it becomes particularly imperative," Blair said at a training workshop sponsored by his Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Some 75 million Nigerians, or half of the population, get infected with malaria at least once a year while children under the age of five (around 24 million) suffer up to four bouts each year.

The workshop held in Nigeria's administrative capital Abuja focused on the use of bed nets to help prevent contracting malaria which is a mosquito-borne disease.

The Nigerian government plans to roll out 62 million bed nets in a country where nearly 300,000 people succumb to malaria each year.

Around 97 percent of the 150 million Nigerians are at risk of infection, says Roll Back Malaria, a global initiative aiming to eradicate the disease.

The British premier from 1997 to 2007 lauded Africa's largest Muslim and Christian alliance, the Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA), for its role in combating malaria.

"This model of inter-faith action can be readily adopted to join the state and public sector in other developing countries if government and funders are willing to provide external support to make this a reality," said Blair

"That is at the heart of my own faith foundation. When faith communities collaborate and work together for justice and human development there is a pay-off. That is, things get done and then respect and understanding between them grows," he said.

Blair who arrived in Nigeria on Friday at the start a west African tour that will also take him to Liberia and Sierra Leone, will attend an award ceremony in Abuja on Sunday, organised by privately owned newspaper This Day.

AFP

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Nigeria to manufacture cellphone handsets and hardware

A Nigerian-based company, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), has announced plans to start producing mobile handsets and computer hardware in less than two years.

Ahmed Rufai, the CEO of the company, who announced this in Abuja, said that the company had completed and commissioned a locally made Printed Circuit Board Micro Electronics Centre, manned by NIGCOMSAT engineers.

According to him, the centre would focus mainly on the production of printed circuit boards- which is the basis for electronic systems – for computers and handsets, adding that it will have diverse implications on the electronics industry.

“Imagine if all the basic electronics we use are produced in Nigeria. Everything you are holding today is imported. But our projection is that in less than two years, we will have standard handsets produced locally.

“We are also talking to some local computer assembly companies to use our mother boards produced here”, he said.

Currently, said Rufai, the centre has the capacity to produce 500 handsets a day and can also produce good quality motherboards for computers. He added that within the next two years they will be able to perfect the products, adding: “What we have here is the prototype. We just want to show the concept and prove that it can be done.”

He said that NIGCOMSAT engineers have been trained to produce these boards, utilising the best international standard to bridge the gap in the ICT industry in Nigeria and Africa at large.

He also said that the technology is a spin off from the Know-How Technology Transfer and Training of over 100 Nigerian engineers in China, UK, US and the United Arab Emirates.

“It therefore affords these talented engineers the opportunity to look at this aspect of engineering, which is rare on this continent”, he said.

The NIGCOMSAT CEO explained that this technological intervention is crucial to the achievement of Nigeria’s vision to be amongst the top 20 economies of the world in the year 2020, and the realization of the present administration’s seven-point agenda, since technology is the driver of every economy.

Furthermore, he said the revenue prospects for printed circuit boards is high, as China has an annual production capacity of six million valued at $80billion (N12trillion), which if replicated in Nigeria will have a great impact on the socio-economic life of the nation.

“It will not only impact on our technological advancement, but also, the socio-economic effect will be positively felt especially in the area of job creation for the youth”, said Alhassan Bako Zaku, Minister of Science and Technology, while commissioning the project.

He commented that “in the area of education, the microelectronic centre will also serve as a learning ground for our undergraduates to receive hands-on training and firsthand experience in electronics manufacturing, as the centre is fully equipped to meet their educational needs.”

The minister said the centre will also serve local manufacturers and reduce production time and costs- as before now, they had to import the circuit boards for the manufacturing and assembling of local electronic products – thereby moving Nigeria from a resource to knowledge based economy.

IT News Africa

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Chinese denial puts Nigeria telecom sale in doubt

China's No. 2 telecoms carrier China Unicom on Thursday denied any involvement in a $2.5 billion bid for Nigeria's former state telecoms monopoly, putting in doubt what would be the African country's biggest privatization.

The Nigerian government body overseeing the long-troubled privatization of Nitel announced on Tuesday that a consortium involving China Unicom was the preferred bidder with a bid far higher than any of others or than many had expected.

"There's no involvement of this project from the parent company, the listed company or any subsidiary of the company," Unicom spokeswoman Sophia Tso said in an emailed statement.

The National Council on Privatization said New Generation Telecommunications Ltd had become the preferred bidder for Nitel, which Nigeria has struggled to sell since liberalization in 2001 made it uncompetitive against rivals.

The government made no immediate comment on Unicom's statement.

"If this is true, it discredits the Nigerian authorities and the privatization processes itself," said analyst Thecla Mbongue of Informa telecoms and media group.

"It's not the first time they have tried to sell Nitel, which obviously doesn't send a good signal to investors."

GROWING MARKET

Besides Unicom, the National Council on Privatization said the consortium included Minerva Group of Dubai and local company GiCell Wireless Ltd. No details on various members' holdings in the consortium were given.

An official at GiCell Wireless in Abuja said the company was involved in the bid for Nitel, but gave no further details.

There was no comment from Nigeria's privatization agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the biggest telecoms market in Africa with more than 62 million subscribers and is one of the fastest growing in the world, making it a potentially attractive country for foreign players.

But early reports of Unicom's participation in the Nitel bid had surprised many, as the company has little experience in overseas mergers and acquisitions. Unicom's state-run parent owns about 20 percent of PCCW, Hong Kong's former telephone monopoly, but has made few if any forays outside Greater China.

Chinese telecoms carriers in general have been receptive to selling strategic stakes to other major global carriers, but have largely focused operations on their own lucrative home market, the world's largest with about 750 million subscribers.

The reserve bidder in the Nitel sale was Omen International Ltd (BVI) with a bid of $956 million.

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Adebayo Ogunlesi, 56, acquires London Gatwick Airport

A Nigerian, Adebayo Ogunlesi, has acquired the London Gatwick Airport as the new owner. The Gatwick deal is a £1.455 billion agreement with BAA Airports Limited.

Ogunlesi, 56, is the chairman and managing partner, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an independent investment fund based in New York City with worldwide stake in infrastructure assets.

According to the report, Ogunlesi, the son of an 86-year old professor of medicine has presided over a great number of sweet deals that made him the envy of his peers abroad even if his forays into the brisk world multi-billion dollars deals are barely talked about in his home country.

GIP will be investing through Ivy Bidco Limited, a limited liability company registered in England, established for the purpose of making the acquisition.

Bidco will pay cash consideration of £1,455 million for the entire share capital of Gatwick Airport Limited on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

 Ogunlesi says the acquisition of Gatwick is a landmark deal for GIP and adds another quality asset to his firm's rapidly expanding portfolio.

He said, "we see significant scope to apply both our strong operational focus and our knowledge of the airports sector to make Gatwick an airport of choice."

 He began stacking up his big deals profile when he joined the top-shelf New York law firm, Cravath, Swain & Moore. It was at the law firm that he jumped at the chance to advise First Boston (which later acquired Credit Suisse in 1997 to form Credit Suisse First Boston or CSFB) on a hugely lucrative Nigerian gas project.

The success of that deal landed him his first big pay move to First Boston. For First Boston, he worked on project finance, brokering deals in which lenders finance assets like oil refineries and mines and are repaid with revenues generated by those enterprises.

Based in New York City and traveling to emerging markets, he built CSFB's project-finance business into the world's best, in part by encouraging corporations and governments to tap public debt markets in addition to commercial lenders.

His teacher while at King's College, Lagos, J. Namme, said that Bayo, as he is fondly called, loves getting things done. Perhaps, the London Gatwick Airport acquisition best underscores his desire to get things done and in the big way too. The Gatwick deal illustrates his global influence in infrastructure assets deals.

  Ogunlesi has lived in New York for 20 years and is active in volunteer work. But he also cultivates his ties to Africa. He informally advises the Nigerian government on privatisation. And last summer Manute Bol, former NBA center, visited Ogunlesi in his Park Avenue office, seeking donations for a charitable foundation in former basketball star Manute Bol's homeland, Sudan.

Ogunlesi walked Bol around the hallways, introducing him to junior staff. It was just another day in the Bayosphere.

 Prior to his current role, he was executive vice chairman and chief client officer of Credit Suisse, based in New York. He previously served as a member of Credit Suisse's Executive Board and Management Council and chaired the Chairman's Board. Previously, he was the Global Head of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse. Since joining Credit Suisse in 1983, Ogunlesi has advised clients on strategic transactions and financings in a broad range of industries and has worked on transactions in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Ogunlesi attended the prestigious King's College, Lagos. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Yale School.

Ogunlesi, whose father was the first Nigerian-born medical professor, studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford and then earned law and business degrees from Harvard. In the US, he is known as the Nigerian who clerked for late Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, who they say was unable to pronounce his name and quickly dubbed him Obeedoogee. Colleagues and friends call him Bayo.

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